SpaceX Demonstrates Astronaut Escape System for Crew Dragon Spacecraft

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May 06, 2015

RELEASE 15-08

SpaceX Demonstrates Astronaut Escape System for Crew Dragon Spacecraft

A loud whoosh, faint smoke trail and billowing parachutes marked a successful
demonstration Wednesday by SpaceX of its Crew Dragon spacecraft abort system
- an important step in NASA's endeavor to rebuild America's ability to
launch crews to the International Space Station from U.S. soil. The
successful test of the spacecraft's launch escape capabilities proved the
spacecraft's ability to carry astronauts to safety in the unlikely event of
a life-threatening situation on the launch pad.

The Crew Dragon simultaneously fired its eight SuperDraco engines at 9 a.m.
EDT and leapt off a specially built platform at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The engines fired for about
six seconds, instantly producing about 15,000 pounds of thrust each and
lifting the spacecraft out over the Atlantic Ocean before jettisoning its
trunk, as planned, and parachuting safely into the ocean. The test lasted
about two minutes from engine ignition to splashdown.

"This is a critical step toward ensuring crew safety for government and
commercial endeavors in low-Earth orbit," said Kathy Lueders, manager of
NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "Congratulations to SpaceX on what
appears to have been a successful test on the company's road toward achieving
NASA certification of the Crew Dragon spacecraft for missions to and from the
International Space Station."

The flight test is a vital milestone in the company's development effort
and furthers its plan to meet a major requirement for the next generation of
piloted spacecraft -- an escape system that can quickly and safely take crew
members away from their rocket while on the pad and through their ascent to
orbit. SpaceX can use the test data to help refine its aerodynamic and
performance models, and its design, to help ensure crew safety throughout all
phases of flight.

"SpaceX was founded with the goal of carrying people to space, and
today's pad abort test represented an important milestone in that
effort," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating
officer. "Our partnership with NASA has been essential for developing Crew
Dragon, a spacecraft that we believe will be the safest ever flown. Today's
successful test will provide critical data as we continue toward crewed
flights in 2017."

The test was the first with a full-size developmental spacecraft using a
complete set of eight SuperDraco engines in the demanding real-world
conditions of a pad abort situation. SpaceX built the SuperDracos for pad and
launch abort use. Each engine, the chambers of which are 3-D printed, burns
hypergolic propellants monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.

More than 270 special instruments, including temperature sensors and
accelerometers, which are instruments that measure acceleration, were
strategically placed in and around the vehicle to measure a variety of
stresses and acceleration effects. A test dummy, equipped with sensors, went
along for the ride to measure the effects on the human body. To further
maximize the value of the test, weights were placed inside the capsule at
crew seat locations to replicate the mass of a crewed launch.

The trunk, an unpowered cylinder with stabilizing fins, detached from the
spacecraft when it reached maximum altitude and fell back to Earth, while the
capsule rotated on as planned for a couple seconds before unfurling its
drogue parachutes, which then deployed the main parachutes. Boat crews have
begun the process of retrieving the Crew Dragon from the ocean and returning
it to land for further analysis.

Spacecraft development and certification through the Commercial Crew Program
is performed through a new arrangement that encourages innovation and
efficiency in the aerospace industry, bringing to the process the space
agency's expertise in the form of safety and performance requirements for
the spacecraft, boosters and related systems.

The pad abort test is a payment milestone funded by the Commercial Crew
Program under a partnership agreement established with the company in 2012.
The agency awarded contracts last year to Boeing and SpaceX to build their
respective systems for flight tests and operational missions to the space
station. Known as Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap)
contracts, the awards allow continued work on Boeing's CST-100 and
SpaceX's Crew Dragon at a pace that is determined by their respective
builders, but that also meets NASA's requirements and its goal of flying
crews in 2017.

"Our partners have met many significant milestones and key development
activities so far, and this pad abort test provides visual proof of one of
the most critical safety requirements -- protecting a crew in the event of a
major system failure," Lueders said.

NASA already is preparing the space station for commercial crew spacecraft
and the larger station crews that will be enabled by SpaceX's Crew Dragon
and Boeing's CST-100. NASA plans to use the new generation of privately
developed and operated spacecraft to carry as many as four astronauts each
mission, increasing the station crew to seven and doubling the amount of
science that can be performed off the Earth, for the Earth.

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

For the latest on commercial crew progress, bookmark the program's blog at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

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